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The Daily Texan Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900
Committee hosts public tuition forum UT president to attend, listen to campus feedback about possible increases By Melissa Pan Daily Texan Staff Students, faculty and staff will have a chance to voice opinions about the tuition increases proposed in December at a public forum Wednesday. The Tuition Policy Advisory Committee will host the forum from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Avaya Auditorium of the Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences Building. This will be the first time the recommendations are formally presented to the public. The committee sent recommendations to UT President William Powers Jr. on Dec. 1 proposing that the University increase tuition by about 4 percent per year over the next two years. Including a $65 per semester fee for the construction of the new Student Activity Center, the increase translates to about $240 more in tuition each semester for UT undergraduates. Powers is expected to attend
the forum to get student feedback. Using the committee’s recommendation, Powers will develop and present his own tuition proposal to the UT System Board of Regents, which is responsible for setting tuition. “Take feedback — that’s the whole purpose of the forum,” said Cecilia Lopez, committee member and government senior. The committee, composed of nine voting members, gave its annual recommendations to Powers after three months of weekly meetings last fall, which were not open to the public. According to the committee’s recommendations, without a tuition increase, the University would face budget shortfalls of more than $17 million during the 2010-2011 school year and more than $14 million the following year. The increases will not generate new funds to pursue Powers’ goals of hiring top faculty and graduate students and retaining current employees. Cutting the budget by more than $17 million — if tuition is not raised — could result in
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Disaster victims welcome support from Austin group By Bobby Longoria Daily Texan Staff An outpour of humanitarian response since Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti has come from groups and individuals all over the world, including Austin. Local resident Craig Miller, president of the humanitarian aid group Thirst No More, arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday with Michael Alexendre, a pastor from the Dominican Republic. By Monday, Miller set up a base camp on the grounds of a church in Boudin, Haiti, and has begun providing aid to 3,000 displaced people after the earthquake. U.N. Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon called the earthquake one of the “largest, most serious natural disasters in recent decades” while briefing the U.N. Security Council in New York on Monday. “It’s the best side of humanity when we provide for people that can’t help themselves,” Miller said in a telephone interview on Monday. “We are dealing with people that were already struggling, and now they don’t have anything. If we don’t help them, who will?” Upon his arrival Miller began distributing Primary Assistance Kits, which can be purchased
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Mary Kang | Daily Texan Staff
Jamie Lamb, left, a representative of nonprofit organization Makarios, contributes to the Haiti relief fund with Nancy and Ed Miller on Monday afternoon at Dominican Joe coffee shop.
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Photos by Bryant Haertlein | Daily Texan Staff
Above, DeWayne Ward, center, listens to speakers during a gathering in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Capitol on Monday. Ward is a member of the Alpha Omega Pathfinder Club, which led a march from UT to the Capitol that morning. Below, a member of the Delta chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity dances during the celebrations at an MLK cultural festival at Huston-Tillotson University on Monday afternoon.
Austinites march in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy By Priscilla Totiyapungprasert Daily Texan Staff Despite crisp morning temperatures on Monday, what started as a few hundred marchers grew to thousands as people proceeded from the UT campus to the Capitol to Huston-Tillotson University in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. The march first began 27 years ago under UT’s Texas Union African-American Culture Committee. Ten years later, the committee teamed up with students at Huston-Tillotson to start a citywide celebration, including a festival on Huston-Tillotson’s campus. Lamar Watson, a fifth grader from Overton Elementary School and winner of the annual MLK Children’s Oratory Contest, gave his winning speech at the gathering. Students from five East Austin elementary schools competed
against each other to present the best five-minute speech on the topic, “If you could share your dream with Dr. King, what would it be?” Speakers included President William Powers Jr., Student Government President Liam O’Rourke, state Rep. Dawnna Dukes and former state Sen.
Gonzalo Barrientos. Performances included youth dancers and a performance from the St. Mary’s Baptist Church choir. “This is a way for us to reflect on Dr. King’s teachings and learn how important it is to serve the city,” said Brenda Burt, the UT march coordinator. “We can work as a unit to
give back by helping those who need help, like feeding the hungry and taking care of elderly.” Austin resident Patricia Guzman said she was moved by the speeches and proud to take part in her first march alongside her niece Erica Gonzales, a third grader at Metz Elementary School, and her nephew. Over 200 marchers left the statue at 10 a.m., said Leslie Blair, a spokeswoman for the UT Office of Diversity and Community Engagement. Numbers swelled as the crowd marched toward the Capitol. Finance junior Brandon Scott said he has participated in the march since he was a freshman as a way to preserve King’s legacy, not just for the AfricanAmerican community but also for all communities and the United States as well.
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UT launches iPhone application Researchers By Melissa Pan Daily Texan Staff Reach no farther than an iPhone for access to University maps, the directory, UT President William Powers Jr.’s blog and the school’s fight song. The University released its free iPhone application, also compatible with the iPod Touch, Jan. 5. The application has been downloaded more than 25,000 times in the last seven days, totaling 51,348 downloads from more than 30 countries as of Monday, according to Cesar de la Garza, associate director for development at UT. It has been downloaded more than any other education-related iPhone application. The application has an interface that leads to UT sports news, scoreboards, campus event calendars and cam-
pus maps that include shuttle of sculptures at the University routes. The user can search for on loan from the Metropolitan someone in the directory and Museum of Art in New York. The “extras” section includes University fight songs and a UT trivia quiz. According to UT officials, the Hopefully it will be University is the first higher education institution to use the a real, functional, software. handheld tool for “There’s a lot of good unistudents. The sky’s versity applications out there,” said Paul Walker, special assisthe limit.” tant to Powers. “We invested time and energy to try to make — John McCall it a step better.” associate VP of “[The application] is aldevelopment ready really good,” said government junior David Perng, who uses the application on his iPod Touch. “I don’t know how call or e-mail the person from much more they could add.” the page. Users can watch vidBut Perng said he would like eos, browse through photo galACCESS continues on page 7A leries and take a virtual tour
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accept grant for accurate X-ray scans Further work in program will increase effectiveness of mammogram images By Lena Price Daily Texan Staff A group of UT researchers received a $50,000 grant from the UT System on Jan. 12 to enhance mammogram technology. The researchers, led by biomedical engineering professor Mia Markey and electrical engineering professor Al Bovik, have been
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